We’re Turning 1! Give us your feedback

TLT began as a way for me to keep doing what I love doing – being a teen services librarian – while my family was moving. I’m not going to lie, I love it! Because of TLT I have met some fabulous authors, met some fabulous teen services librarians, and even met some fabulous teens! And now we are getting ready to celebrate a year.

TLT isn’t even just me anymore – now it’s a we.

What an honor it is to work with the awesome Stephanie Wilkes and the amazing teen Cuyler. And have you met the new kids on the blog?

I feel like we are doing a good job covering things: books, teen services, teen issues, graphics, graphic novels, programs . . . but maybe we could be doing more. Or better.

In the next few days Stephanie Wilkes and I will be sharing with you our Top 10 posts from this past year. But we want to hear from you as well!

So, as we get ready to celebrate a year, please take a moment to help us help you.

What features do you like best about TLT?

What has been your favorite post(s)?

What other types of information would help you better serve your teens, work with your communities, etc.?

Talk to us in the comments.

Also, we want to take a moment to say thank you! When you visit our blog, comment on posts and share with your teens or fellow librarians, you are helping us. TLT has renewed my passion, made me really challenge myself and grow, and given me tremendous opportunities. When you engage, whether by commenting or sharing your own posts (always welcome), you make it all worth it. Thank you for the opportunity to journey with you as we all try to get teens reading, thriving and using their libraries. Whether you are a librarian, author, publisher or teen, we couldn’t do what we do without you and we genuinely give thanks.

Leave a comment about TLT or your favorite post, etc. between now and July 15th (with an e-mail or Twitter followback to get in contact with you) and you’ll be entered to win a 5 ARC bundle from our stash.

Comments

I can't believe TLT is only 1 year old! I started reading a few months ago and the blog seems so well established.

My favorite posts have been about programming. My library does almost exclusively passive programming for teens. I've found that a few of your programming ideas could be modified to fit my library's needs.

I've also enjoyed your Why I Read YA series and I can never read too many reviews. I especially like how you give star ratings.

Hold up, TLT is only a year old? You guys have done such a fantastic job establishing yourselves in such a short amount of time. Love this blog.

My favorite posts would probably have to be the Why I Read YA posts. They remind me of what an amazing genre this is, and how everyone in the community–from authors to librarians to teens to fans–is so invested in YA and what it can do. But really, all the posts are fantastic. Keep up the awesome work, and happy anniversary!

I love that you do all of this hard work and create such awesome content on this blog. But (and this is about me, not you) I seldom come here to read it. I'd be much more likely to get your content from Tumblr, if it were there. You need to look at your target audience, though. Which probably isn't 40-something middle school librarians…

How do I leave an email without it being viewable to everyone? I signed in with name/url and left my Twitter address.

Hello….just found you via a friends Facebook post of the Mystery video. You have put together an amazing site and I'm looking forward to strolling through this summer while out of school. (I'm a h.s. library media specialist.)

Do have one question. We have had a huge focus this year at school on copyright so I am reading my copyright for schools book cover to cover. I thought copying and displaying covers is against copyright (like on a bulletin board), so I wondered about the posters you have made. Did you need toget permission for the authors/publishers to reproduce covers this way, or does this come under some loophole….or am I just wrong about the reproduction problem?? It seems a sorry situation not to be able to reproduce the covers to promote reading the book…but Sometimes the current copyright restrictions are unfathomable!! Help, and thanks!!

So glad you found us and excellent question! The discussion on yalsa-bk and feedback that I have gotten from publishers is that you can display the covers for promotional purposes – such as in posters, bookmarks, newsletters, etc – as long as you don't make any profit or alter the image. Publishers recognize that when you put their covers out there you are in fact helping with their promotional efforts. But I am very careful to share my posters, bookmarks, school visit power points, etc, for free for promotional and educational purposes only. I hope you like what you see/read and keep visiting. And consider sharing if you have something to share.

I've loved you and your blog, Karen, ever since I met you! I definitely think TLT is really out there, I've never seen a blog quite like it, which I love. I really love how your blog isn't just for librarians, I, as a teen, really enjoy reading all your posts. I also really like how you're not afraid to say anything- you say it. And your reviews are always so helpful as well! <3

I want to give you some feedback, but it's seriously hard to find a bad thing about your blog! I think my one suggestion would be this: slow down. I know you have a bajillion posts going up everyday, which is great, but it makes it hard sometime to read everything you have [personally, I think this is a good problem!]. But I think if you stuck to one or 2 posts a day, your posts would get more views, so people could read them all. Obviously, this is just a personal opinion of mine.

Keep doing what you do, Karen! I'm really looking forward to watching your blog grow even more in the future. <3

I once heard a speaker call them “self directed programs” and I really like that term a lot more. Passive makes it sound like you don't have any time or effort invested in it, which of course you do. Self directed makes it sound like you are being developmentally aware, which you are. The word passive just seems to have such negative connotations to it. So I was excited to hear this new term which I have no adopted. I really wish I could remember who said it, but I know it was a webinar.

Ah Aneeqah, you are awesome. RE: the multiple postings. One of my favorite blogs is the Popwatch blog at EW.com and they too have multiple postings a day. Sometimes I post multiple posts because I get excited. Sometimes we post multiple posts because of timing issues, like on a book release date, or because the posts are all tied in together to the same topic, such as when we did the Dear Teen Me series of posts. But we'll try not to overwhelm you. Promise.

Done by a totally unscientific drawing where my 3-year-old literally drew a name out of a hat, and actual hat I tell ya – Robin from Robin Reads is the winner of our 5 ARC bundle. Email me where you would like your 5 arc bundle sents pretty please at kjensenmls@yahoo.com. I will endeavor to ship it in a timely manner.

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Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s creator and owner (Karen Jensen, MLS) is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the post author and Teen Librarian Toolbox with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. RA Posters may be freely used. All thoughts and opinions expressed belong to the individuals that wrote them and do not reflect the views of any outside affiliations including the libraries that we work at, the professional journals that we work with, or VOYA magazine, etc. Thoughts and opinions of guest posters do not represent those of TLT. A 2014 Library Journal Movers and Shaker: Advocates

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About TLT

Teen Librarian Toolbox (TLT) is a professional development website for teen librarians, created by Karen Jensen and collecting the experience of four MLS librarians and over 50 collective years of library work. Our mission is to to help libraries serving teens (and anyone who cares about teens) and to foster a community of professional development and resource sharing by providing quality information, discussions, book reviews and more. We welcome guest posts and our book review policy can be found here. We are available for presentations, seminars, and consulting on a limited basis. Contact us for more information.